Six state transportation departments will be grouped together under one central agency this July, "streamlining" future projects and ending wasteful spending, if Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed 2013-14 budget is approved.

The governor's budget proposal, released Thursday, includes a government reorganization plan that creates a new Transportation Agency, that will centralize Caltrans, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the High-Speed Rail Authority, the Highway Patrol, the California Transportation Commission and the Board of Pilot Commissioners under one roof.

Previously, Caltrans was under the umbrella of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. The reorganization also creates the Government Operations Agency and the Business and Consumer Services Agency.

"Upon implementation, this plan will improve the management and coordination of government activities, which will facilitate further consolidations and cost savings," Brown said in a March letter to the Little Hoover Commission, an independent state oversight agency that approved the plan this spring.

Brown first proposed the reorganization last January as part of the 2012-13 budget and it was approved by the legislature last year. If the budget is implemented, the reorganization would go into effect on July 1.

Robert Oakes, a spokesman for state Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge, said the reorganization has been a long time coming.

"There have been discussions for many years about a more efficient and centralized system .

Advertisement

.. so the governor's proposal makes a lot of sense," Oakes said. "It's been a long time since the government did a reorganization plan at all and it was good to see the governor stepped forward on this."

But Liu's chief of staff, Suzanne Reed, said she still has many questions about what this reorganization will mean for projects such as the 710 Freeway extension, which is in the first phase of a three- year environmental study.

"I have absolutely no clarity whatsoever," Reed said. "We're just going to keep doing what we are doing ... We assume all the people we are dealing with to date will have a continued role in what we are going to be dealing with in the future when the 710 (Environmental Impact Report) plays out."

Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Marc Littman said Thursday the agency's funding for local projects will be "stabilized" in the new budget, but declined to comment on how the new Transportation Agency might influence Metro's local decision-making process.

"Metro is reviewing the governor's budget but our initial analysis is there shouldn't be much change in terms of transportation funding for Los Angeles County," Littman said.

Caltrans officials did not return multiple calls for comment.

Assemblyman Edwin Chau, D-Alhambra, said he thinks the new agency will centralize the discussion about transportation.

Although he said it "remains to be seen" how the new agency will affect such local projects as the Gold Line or the 710 Freeway extension, Chau said he thinks the agency will be more accessible to those who are most affected by the transportation projects.

"I think the reorganization itself is a good thing because it does allow the stakeholders to really come together to exchange ideas to what is best for the state of California, including the 710 Freeway," Chau said. "It's very unique in the sense that we now have a separate department of transportation and a secretary of transportation and the agency itself has several entities under this umbrella."

Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, said the reorganization will also be a chance for multiple transportation groups to come together and plan for future projects.

"I am excited about the governor's plan to convene a working group that focuses on the state's transportation and infrastructure needs and explores long-term funding options for transportation projects," Holden said in a statement.